Row Over Photos Of Topless Kate Lands In French Courts

Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, earlier today on a visit to the Solomon Islands.

Daniel Munoz AFP/Getty Images

Buckingham Palace is following up its promise to bring a civil suit against the French magazine that published photos of a topless Duchess of Cambridge (Kate Middleton) with a criminal complaint that's also been filed in a French court.

"Paris correspondent Christian Fraser said there was no name listed in the criminal complaint. He says most lawyers seem to agree that under strict French law the pictures represent an undisputed breach of privacy — an open-and-shut case. An injunction, if granted, would lead to the magazine [Closer] being withdrawn from shelves immediately but the tribunal's judgement will only relate to the distribution of the photos in France."

The legal steps, however, aren't stopping the photos from spreading. An Irish tabloid has also published some of them.

And The Guardian says Italy's Chi gossip magazine today "published 18 photographs spread over 19 pages of the royal couple sunbathing at a villa in southern France after the editor, Alfonso Signorini, tweeted over the weekend that 'not even a direct call from the Queen' would stop him."

The duchess is, you'll recall, married to Prince William — son of Prince Charles and the late Diana and the man who someday may be king of England.